(Minghui.org) My body used to be riddled with ailments. I also had a grade four disability [Editor's note: in China disabilities are given a grade, with one being considered the most severe] and could not lift my right arm, which had always made my life very difficult. Since I started practicing Falun Dafa in December 1997, I have never been healthier. Dafa filled my heart with happiness and my body with a vibrant energy that I had never known before.
How I Became a Dafa Practitioner
My husband had a horrific accident in 1971 which rendered him paralyzed from the waist down. He was helping with the demolition of a house in our village when he was crushed by a falling beam. He suffered a grade one disability as a result. He cannot stand and is therefore dependent on others for care. He has also been plagued with pain and numbness in many parts of his body since the accident. My youngest son also had health issues and had developed epilepsy as a result of a prolonged bout of fever.
They both started practicing Dafa in November 1997, after a neighbor recommended they try it. They both had amazing results soon after they started reading the Fa and doing the exercises. My husband was freed from his bodily pain and numbness. My son has not had an epileptic fit since. He became a friendly, kind-hearted person who was devoted to his parents and considerate of others. He was well regarded by everyone in our village.
About a month later on a snowy day, I took my husband to his Fa-study venue. I sat waiting on the side while they studied the Fa. What I saw completely blew my mind: The words in their books turned golden and sparkling and then into Buddhas and other divine figures. It was unbelievable! I decided I wanted to practice Dafa too.
The only problem was that I had never been to school, so I was downright illiterate. Yet I told myself: “I am going to learn this Fa however difficult it's going to be.” I pleaded for Master Li's (the founder) help and worked really hard at learning to read the Fa. When we studied in a group, I conscientiously followed the words in the book as the others read aloud. When I got home later, I repeatedly revised what I had learned that day and asked my husband and children for help if I got stuck. Sometimes, I also asked Master for help if I could not recognize certain words and sure enough the words would come to me in no time.
After three months of hard work, I was able to read Zhuan Falun, Hong Yin and the rest of the Dafa books. I know that it was because of Master's help. Thank you Master!
Master says:
“As a student, if his mind is filled with nothing but Dafa, this person is definitely a genuine cultivator. So you must have a clear understanding on the matter of studying the Fa. Reading the books more and studying the books more is the key to truly elevating yourself.” ('Melt Into the Fa', Essentials for Further Advancement)
I took Master's words to heart and studied the Fa as much as I could. It paid off because it helped me gain many insights into the teachings. For example, it taught me how to conduct myself and be a morally upright person, to look within myself in the face of conflicts with others and to be considerate of others in everything I do. I was able to elevate my moral character by following Master's teachings.
My Unwavering Faith in Dafa
The evil party instigated the suppression of Falun Gong in July 1999 and started persecuting believers who live by the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Television and radio programs blatantly fabricated lies about the practice and its adherents to justify the persecution. I was distraught in the face of this sudden turn of events, because I knew Dafa and Master did absolutely nothing wrong. I wanted to let others know about my family's positive experiences with Dafa. I went to Beijing twice.
I first went to Beijing in November 1999. We sold our two pigs to raise the necessary funds. We have lived in the country all our lives and had never traveled far from home. My son and I with my husband on his back arrived in Beijing with a dozen fellow practitioners. At Tiananmen Square, the police arrested us and took our money and everything we had from us. They detained us illegally for a day until police from the local security office came to take us away. We were locked up in the local detention center for 15 days. After we were allowed to go home, the village authorities also had a go at us by locking us up for another 10 days.
I went to Beijing again in May 2000. My two nephews and I got off the train at Baoding, because we did not have enough money for the whole journey. Our only option was to walk the rest of the way. Not knowing our way, we got terribly lost when darkness fell, so we asked for Master's guidance. Suddenly, we saw sparkling Faluns appearing on the road, much to our delight. We were certain that Master's Faluns was showing us the way so we just followed them.
After having walked the whole night, my two nephews had blisters on their feet. They were hungry and exhausted, but we had no money to buy food. They asked me if I was tired? I said: “No, I don't feel tired at all. I am not hungry either. I feel great!” As we stopped to take a rest, a big truck came along and the driver stopped for us. “What are you doing here?” he asked. We told him we wanted to go to Tiananmen Square and to our surprise he volunteered to take us there. We all knew in our hearts that it was arranged by Master.
The flag was being raised when we arrived at Tiananmen Square, so we sat down to do our meditation. We were arrested and taken back to our village where we continued to be subjected to even worse harassment and mistreatment. The village authorities sent a bunch of people to rob us of everything we had. They took tens of thousands of yuan worth of our property, including the two oxen that our livelihood depended on.
I have been illegally detained 11 times. One time I was locked up by the village authorities in a room made of brick no bigger than 8 square meters [86 square feet]. It had a concrete floor, one boarded-up window and a door. It had a firepot inside that was burning coal. They shoved me into the room at 5:00 pm and did not let me out till after 8:00 am the next morning. While in there, I could not breathe or yell out for anyone. I felt sick and eventually fainted. I slowly came to after they opened the door. I found the seat of my pants had two big burn holes, but my clothes had not caught fire. They really wanted me dead! We all know the deadly consequences of lighting coal in a room with no ventilation. I would have died had it not been for Master's protection.
The village authorities were especially cruel to my youngest son. They tied him up, beat him and even subjected him to group beatings. The unimaginable cruelties doled out to my son took a horrendous toll on his body. He passed out twice while being severely beaten. Once they wanted to forcibly take him to a labor reeducation center. My son refused to go and fought back, and as a result, he was beaten up so severely that he could not walk. Just to comply with orders, they cold-heartedly arrested and carried my paralyzed husband out the door instead.
My youngest son was forced to leave home and went as far as Hainan Province to make a living. Unfortunately, he was arrested on August 6, 2002, and has not been seen since. The relevant authorities have not provided any information to the family. He is still missing.
For more than 20 years, I have suffered illegal incarcerations, loss of our personal property, and the loss of my son at the hands of the 610 Office and the village authorities. However, I have never once wavered in my faith in Dafa or acquiesced to the evil's plan. I will obey Master to cultivate myself diligently and to save people as a matter of priority.
Make Saving People a Priority
Master said:
“For a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple, personal liberation is not the goal of cultivation: when you came, saving sentient beings was your great aspiration, and that is the responsibility and mission history has bestowed upon you in Fa-rectification. Thus great numbers of beings are to be saved by you.” ('Let Go of Human Attachments and Save the World’s People', The Essentials of Diligent Progress Vol III)
After my husband passed away in 2016, my children all wanted me to move in with me. They all have big roomy apartments in the city. But I wanted to remain in our country home for its ease of getting to Fa-study venues and doing Dafa truth- clarification activities. Furthermore, we have more than a dozen practitioners in our village. Some of them do not come out to clarify the truth due to fear and still some are not taking cultivation seriously.
My understanding is that we are one body as practitioners and we need to bring them back to the fold and organize Fa-study opportunities for them. All these years I have been the only person there distributing Dafa news to them, including Master's newly published articles and Minghui Weekly. If I leave our village, no one will get any Dafa news. I have also been active in taking fellow practitioners out with me for various truth-clarification activities, such as distributing flyers and the “Nine Commentaries,” pasting truth-clarification stickers, hanging banners, clarifying the truth door-to-door and at market places. Over the years, we have succeeded in helping many people to rennounce their Chinese Communist Party (CCP) memberships, although I cannot remember the number.
My own experience of cultivation is this: if your thoughts and actions are aligned with Dafa, you will see it's mighty power manifest. I once went out at night to hang banners with a fellow practitioner. She said to me, “How are we going to hang it up that high?” I said: “ Let me do it.” I climbed up while pleading for Master to help and with one mighty throw the banner was hooked up on one end. I ran across the road and easily hooked up the other end. It was not something an over 80-year-old woman could do. It was in fact all done by Master with just a tiny bit of effort from me.
On another occasion, a dozen practitioners were doing Fa-study at my house when a villager came to warn us, “Why are you still holding your meeting when the police are coming in two cars?” Some practitioners made haste to leave because they were afraid. At that very moment, something Master has written came to me:
“Should you have fear,it will seize upon youIf thoughts are righteous,evil will collapseThe cultivator’s mindis loaded with FaSend righteous thoughts,and rotten demons explodeGods walk the earth,validating the Fa.”('What’s to Fear?', Hong Yin Vol II)
I told everyone: “Don't be scared, we have Master and the Fa. Let's all send forth righteous thoughts to stop them.” Well, the police cars stopped about 50 meters from us and could not move any further. After a little while, we sent righteous thoughts again to make the cars go back. In just a few minutes, the cars indeed left. We were all amazed at the power of Dafa.
Last June, three policemen visited me at home. They wanted to take a photo of me and asked me if I was still practicing Falun Dafa. I told them, “Why wouldn't I? I am over 80 years old. Do you think I would be this healthy and fit if I did not practice Falun Dafa? Falun Dafa teaches us to be good. The practice is protected by law in this country, whereas your 'door knocking' is illegal. I am not very educated so I am not that good at explaining, but here is a Dafa pamphlet (“Door knocking is illegal”) that you can read for yourself. After you have finished reading it, pass it to your colleagues so that you will all know not to do the wrong thing. Please remember “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good! Falun Dafa is good!” They had nothing to say and left.
I have been telling my family, my relatives. and friends over the years about the goodness of Dafa. The result is that they have all renounced their CCP memberships and believe very much in the magical words “Falun Dafa is good! Truth-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” In return they have all received blessings. My son has been promoted a few times. My grandchildren and nephews were all accepted into prestigious universities and found ideal jobs after graduation.
